Hi, I've bought a new house that has baseboard heaters. I'm fairly handy around the house but have never before had a oil-fuel furnace or baseboard heaters. After figuring out how to bleed air out of my baseboards, I turned the heat on over weekend and my immediate issue is that my house is too hot. I have the thermostat set to HEAT with it on HOLD at 63°. When I woke up this morning, the house was 72° (according to both the thermostat itself and another thermometer I have) and the temperature outside was 50°.

In addition, I have heard the furnace light up 4 times in the last hour. It burns for maybe 30 or 60 seconds and shuts off. There's not any hot water running in the house and the heat should not be on because it's so hot in here.

Here's my setup: I have White-Rodgers 1F80-261 thermostat. The thermostat appears relatively new, has batteries, etc. It's in SL mode with the the two wires hooked up to the "W" and "RH" terminals and a heating system with an fuel-oil lit furnace with (water) baseboard heaters. The furnace is heats (1) the water for the baseboards when the heat is on) and (2) hot water for the kitchen, bathroom, etc. This is a Burnham America V-14 furnace, my home inspector guessed it was around 15 years old.

Could you please help? I don't understand how this system works or is supposed to work. I can't find an owner's manual anywhere and the B-A 1-800 number refuses to help. I'd appreciate any help with this problem or help finding some good reading material. Thanks!

jerzeedivr

10-26-2010 09:10 AM

winter/summer

Hi, I have a simular system. The boiler maintains a low and high temp. mine has dials where i lower the temp. in the summer and raise it in the winter. summer 140-160, winter 170-190 degrees, 20 deg. spread. It runs now making domestic hot water. sink/shower. you could turn it off and only turn it on for dishes, showers etc. in the summer.

keith-k

10-26-2010 09:20 AM

Thanks for the suggestion. I had a plumber here today (sewer backing-up into basement--yuck). I ran the issue by him and he diagnosed the problem without looking at it, in his first sentence.

Here's the fix:

There was this (green) valve on the system that had been left "open." That made the water circulate through the system backwards, regardless of the thermostat. The valve is used for maintenance and should be left "closed." When I bled the system, it improved the circulation and started heating more. It had nothing to do with the thermostat at all.